Jazeman Jaafar, our local Formula 3.5 driver has done Malaysia proud, as he won his maiden race at the the Formula Renault 3.5 race in Monaco. His team mate Oliver Rowland climbed up the grid till sixth place after entering the pit stop on the first lap.
Jazeman managed the fastest qualifying lap time of 1:23:425, which put him in first place on the race day. He managed to keep his competition at bay, and managed to extend his lead to 3.2 seconds by the time he crossed the chequered flag.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Jazeman, as he was out-dragged by his team mate Oliver Rowland by half a car’s length, but managed to block him out and defended his position against Sainte Devote. Rowland got rear ended by Vaxiviere as he slowed down to regain his line behind Jazeman.
That crash left Rowland with a puncture, and had to enter the pits for a short while. That cost him precious time, where Rowland fell to twelfth position. Rowland worked his way up, and finished with an splendid sixth position. Check out the race highlights below courtesy of Renault Sport @ YouTube, and how ‘Jezza’ grabbed the lead at the first corner, brilliant stuff!
After the race, an excited Jaafar commented, “I feel on top of the world. It’s taken a while to come, but it feels absolutely fantastic to have won – and at the most iconic racing track in the world. I’ve always loved this place and now I love it even more! The race wasn’t as easy to win as it looked. Ollie (Rowland) got just as good a start as me and he was pretty aggressive into the first corner, but I knew that if I braked as late as I could and held my inside line he wouldn’t be able to get past. That strategy worked beautifully for me, although Ollie ended up being tagged and got a puncture when he had to back out of the move, which put him, my biggest rival, out of contention.”
Formula 3.5 is the one of the supporting races to the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The Monaco Street Circuit is one of the most challenging tracks in the race calender and Jazeman has completed with two podium finishes in the past.
Photo credit: Fortec Motorsports
